The second you mention re-targeting, people have one reaction and it usually goes like this: “CREEPY!” Aside from this typical reaction, re-targeting can be an important channel to achieve your marketing goals, if done right of course.
I recently watched a video fromthe SEOMoz meetup, where Joanna Lord, a well known PPC Expert, gives us some tips of how to implement re-targeting effectively and diminish the dreaded ‘creepy’ factor. Lord ensures to draw the distinction between Re-Targeting 1.0 and 2.0 – re-targeting, like search marketing, isn’t “set it and forget it,” (the 1.0 approach) but ongoing optimization, segmentation and creative thinking is integral to its success.
Joanna Lord Presenting Re-Targeting 2.0 at the SEOmoz Meetup
- “Sequence Like It’s Your Job” – says Joanna, because after all, it is. What she means is that you need to segment your audience into different silos. If you’re already doing paid search, this should come easily since you’ll already be used to dividing keywords into specific and targeted campaigns and ad groups.
Building Segments Around the People Who Visit Your Site
- Avoid Banner Fatigue – and keep your creative team busy. Have separate messages for people throughout the consideration funnel (this of course, Joanna points out is dependent on your industry) if it’s been 5 days, 15 days, 30 days and beyond your audience segments should be seeing different creative.
- “Rethink Goals” – Re-targeting isn’t only for selling. You can always use re-targeting to achieve micro conversions such as e-mail capture, having people check out a new offer or new content on your site
- Re-Targeting should be its own channel – with its own budget – this can often be difficult but in order for re-targeting to be successful, it should be considered as its own bucket, with its own line on your blocking chart.
- Leverage your partners for re-targeting – work with your partners to re-target their users and vice versa, just ensure you’re both following the guidelines Joanna mentions
- Use re-targeting in emails – you can drop a pixel in an email and target people who have viewed your newsletter communications
Whatever you feel about re-targeting, it’s evident that it is here to stay. We should be seeing a re-targeting product from Facebook this year. Make sure you follow Joanna Lord’s tips as summarized above and reap the rewards of a smart strategy and good data. My feeling is, when applied correctly, re-targeting can become a profitable channel in your marketing efforts.
